Job: Technical Advisor - AYSRH

Location: Conakry 
Description

Job Ref

13-033-WAI

Job Title

Technical Advisor - AYSRH

Job Type

Full-time

Location

Conakry, Guinea

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Description

Pathfinder Overview

Pathfinder International is a global leader in sexual and reproductive health. We place reproductive health care at the center of all that we do—believing that it is not only a fundamental human right, but is critical for expanding life opportunities for women, families, communities, and nations, and paving the way for transformations in environmental stewardship, decreases in population pressures, and innovations in poverty reduction. Pathfinder provides women, men, and adolescents with a range of quality health services—from contraception and maternal care to HIV prevention and AIDS care and treatment. Pathfinder strives to strengthen access to family planning, ensure availability of safe abortion services and post-abortion care, advocate for sound reproductive health policies, and, through all of our work, improve the rights and lives of the people we serve.

Program Overview

Francophone West Africa is the epicenter of need in reproductive health in the developing world. Its family planning and reproductive health indicators lag significantly behind most of the rest of the world. The causes are many, but chief among them are cultural barriers of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights for youth and adolescents. Worldwide, Pathfinder has been one of the first organizations to recognize and respond to the unique SRH needs of young people, implementing Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health (AYSRH) projects in over 30 countries. Our projects reflect an understanding that young people require a variety of tailored responses using key influencers to shift norms around age at marriage and first birth and to guarantee young people access to SRH information and services. In bringing its skills and experience to francophone West Africa, Pathfinder is seeking to build a regional and country presence through working with existing organizations and programs and developing a new programmatic approach to respond to donor and governmental trends in international health and gain new programming for Pathfinder in this important region.

Position Purpose

The Technical Advisor for Adolescent and Youth Sexual Reproductive Health (AYSRH) contributes to the global effort of Pathfinder International to improve the health and well-being of adolescents and youth through the promotion of healthy behaviors, increasing access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, and fostering more gender equitable and SRH- supportive community norms. The technical advisor will support the high-quality technical implementation of Pathfinder’s project, which is focused on young married women, in West Africa including Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

NOTE: Pathfinder is seeking candidates from Guinea and countries in the surrounding area. The Technical Advisor for AYSRH is a fixed-term one year position. Should additional funding become available, the position may be renewed. There are no international allowances associated with this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health in Guinea to develop and roll-out a national AYSRH Strategy and Guidelines.
• Support the MOH in Guinea to develop/finalize national training curricula for youth-friendly services (YFS), including adding content related to married adolescents, and coordinate national training of trainers.
• Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to implement at least 2 YFS demonstration sites in Guinea.
• Provide technical assistance to local partners in Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Niger to tailor community-based distribution and other community health worker strategies to reach young married women and their partners with SRH information and services.
• Facilitate training of community-based distribution agents in healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy and effective communication and counselling around contraception and fertility for young women and their partners.
• Develop guide for engaging male partners of young women via small groups and household visits using existing Pathfinder resources and other partner resources.
• Provide technical support to local partners to tailor community outreach strategies to address community norms around AYSRH, gender, and fertility.
• Monitor implementation of activities and data collection by local partners and provide supportive supervision to improve quality of program activities.
• Maintain communication with Pathfinder Headquarter technical advisors to build skills in AYSRH and young married adolescents, discuss and address challenges, and ensure that Pathfinder resources and approaches are being applied throughout the project.
• Represent Pathfinder International in technical working groups, meetings, and other fora.
• Participate in project quarterly and annual review meetings as well as report writing.

Basic Requirements

• Degree in health, population, demography, social sciences or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience in implementation of SRH programs tailored to adolescents and youth.
• Technical knowledge of contraception and gender and other SRH issues facing young people, and particularly young married women and first time parents, in West Africa.
• Technical knowledge of and experience implementing youth-friendly services.
• Proven ability to provide technical assistance and support to ministries of health and local partners in the area of adolescent and youth SRH.
• Experience training health care providers, outreach workers, or peer educators.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to think creatively and broadly to envision, create and implement a program.
• Client-focused, with the ability to facilitate strong working relationships between colleagues, donors, grantees, government officials and community members.
• Strong organizational and administrative skills; emphasis on priority setting and completion of simultaneous tasks.
• Willingness to travel in West Africa region at least 50% of the time.
• Excellent skills in report writing and workshop facilitation.
• Fluent French required and preferably high level verbal and written English.
• Computer literacy (Word) and email (Outlook) required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in health, population, demography, social sciences or related field is preferred.

Pathfinder International is proud to be an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer.
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